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Letters to the Editor—Alternate Perceptions Magazine, May 2020

Gypsy woman?

About 25 years ago when I went (by myself) to the Albany Marriott hotel when they had a UFO exposition. They had lecturers and a couple of people hawked their books at half time. I had just read the Keel book where it told of strange "gypsies" walking across someone's lawn at night and their dress was festooned with a glowing or sparkly material. That image always fascinated me. So I got there early and went in (I remember one of the guys who spoke, as he was well known, named Allen Greenfield). I was about halfway back of the room away from the podium. There were maybe 15 people there. I noticed someone walking in my aisle to my left and being polite I didn't look up. I felt someone looking at me, staring at me. When I looked over there was a young woman about 26 or so...27...with long black hair, swarthy skin and two little kids to her left. She sat RIGHT next to me and there were hundreds of folding chairs in the room where she could have sat. And her long dress was very much what I had envisioned as described in Keel's book...The dress didn't have sequins or anything on it but it kind of had a curious sheen to it. I imagined later it probably could have glistened in the dark. Then, they got up and left.just like that. It was like: "We're here!"..........AND when the thing got underway and a speaker was talking the lights kept going down...dimmed...and the speaker said, "I guess they're here, folks"............I never forgot that.

Claudia Cunningham, Albany, New York

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Cryptid encounter?

Hi again!

I wanted to share a recent sighting I had happen. If you'd like to use it for your letters/personal stories section, no problem at all.

Creature Sighting
2/10/20
5:54pm
Ellsworth, Maine

Driving on Bayside Road in Ellsworth, Maine; approximately two miles from the Trenton town line, I witnessed a five to six foot tall being on the left side of the road. I was driving at 44 mph (cruise control was on).

It was all black, in fact, it was so dark and shiny that it seemed like it could be covered in a shiny black substance; resembling oil or tar. It glistened when my headlights shown on it. At about one hundred yards away, I watched it as it stepped into the woods and out of sight. It's was lanky.

I stopped at the area in which I thought it had stepped into, rolled down the window and looked into the woods. I was hoping to see a person or at least hear obvious walking in the woods; I saw and heard nothing. I then smelled a foul odor like rotting eggs. It filled my car and stayed with me for a couple of miles while I continued home.

The entire sighting lasted 2 or 3 seconds.

I've had a lot of different kinds of encounters so, while it was a bit unsettling, it really is just another addition to my list of interesting encounters.

I've had no other sightings, but a bit of research uncovered a UFO sighting close to the area in 1995, but my father had an encounter about two years prior and a few miles away on the same road. My father's story is below.

On Sunday morning, July 22, 2018, around 4:30 am, my father was taking a walk with my mother down Bayside Road heading toward Ellsworth. As they were walking by a house close to the road, my father noticed something large and white from his peripheral vision. He turned to look at what it might be and said he saw a tall, all white figure with no legs and no discernable head. He saw it briefly then it glided behind a shed that was on the property. He estimated the height of the shed to be 9-10 feet and explained that the figure was as tall as the shed.

This all happened within about 10 seconds or so. He did get my mother's attention but she was unable to view it.

My father shined his flashlight in the area of the shed and saw nothing further there. He then looked at the house that was on the property and saw a black, shadowy figure go by a window and thought the figure to be inside of the home. He did not think it to be a person as it was not humanoid shaped at all but couldn't describe more than black and shadowy.

He is a skeptic and said to my mother at the time after the sighting, "I have to tell my son about this. I don't believe in ghosts but that was weird!"